WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance scolded Volodymyr Zelensky to stop “badmouthing” President Trump on Wednesday after the Ukrainian leader accused his US counterpart of spreading disinformation — heightening an escalating spat following initial peace talks to end the three-year-old Russian invasion.
“The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,” Vance told the Daily Mail in an interview.
Trump tore into Zelensky earlier Wednesday as a “Dictator without Elections” — after the Ukrainian president said Trump was “living in a disinformation space.”
The animosity increased between the men this week after Zelensky reportedly instructed his aides to reject a proposal by Trump for the US to gain access to up to 50% of many of the Eastern European country’s natural resources, including rare earths.
The Trump administration understood that exchange to have been broadly agreed upon — with the president floating $500 billion in resources for the US as repayment for $183 billion in congressionally approved US aid — after Zelensky indicated he was open to the concept at a Trump Tower meeting in September.
Monday reports indicated that Zelensky rejected the economic framework, and on Tuesday the Ukrainian president canceled a planned trip to Saudi Arabia — protesting the fact that US leaders met with Russian diplomats without him hours earlier.
Trump retaliated by ripping Zelensky at a press conference in Florida Tuesday afternoon, accusing Ukraine of starting the conflict with Russia and claiming Kyiv’s president had a 4% approval rating, despite public polling showing higher numbers.
“Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years [ago]. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump fumed.
“I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating and where a country has been blown to smithereens.”
After Zelensky accused Trump of spreading disinformation, Trump unleashed a fiery Truth Social post saying, “Zelenskyy [sic] better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
Trump, 78, and Zelensky, 47, have long had a difficult relationship — dating to Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 for pressuring his counterpart to open an investigation of Biden family business dealings.
Zelensky typically is more cautious in public remarks about Trump, often praising him and refraining from latching onto his more controversial comments.
Trump persistently criticized the scope of US aid to Ukraine as he campaigned last year, and in a Super Bowl Sunday interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier this month, said economic concessions are necessary because Ukraine “may be Russian one day, but we’re going to have all this money in there and I say, ‘I want it back.’”
